QUERY KOMBAT IS TOMORROW!

Contests, Literary, , , , , , , , , ,

Query Kombat Logo

Reminding everyone that Query Kombat submissions open tomorrow May 16 (9am) and remain open through May 20, 2016 (closing at noon).  Michelle Hauck is the creator of the contest with Laura Heffeman and Michael Anthony  hosting. You can find the instructions to submit here. They have 21 agents (although Michael’s blog says 29) participating this year, so get those queries and first 250 words polished. And remember, this is for completed and unpublished works.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction

Horror Pitch Contest On Twitter

Literary

PitDark-May-12-262x300

Well, I feel I’ve been out of the loop a while with the extra hours at work and exams at school. But I’ve completed all educated works and can get back to life. While surfing tonight on twitter, I came across a new contest for horror writers! Woohoo!

This contest is a twitter pitch contest using the hashtag #PitDark and is hosted by Jason Huebinger tomorrow May 12, 2016. (Yep, nothing like a super last-minute notice folks!) So hurry and get your 140 character pitches ready and be sure to follow the guidelines. If you won’t be home during the contest, you can use TweetDeck to schedule your tweets.

There will be THIRTY participating agents and a few participating publishers surfing twitter for your awesome pitches. And remember, this is for completed and polished unpublished manuscripts! For a complete list of agents and rules click the #PitDark hashtag.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and author of MG/YA fiction

 

Literary Agent Beth Phelan Pitch Event

Contests, Literary, , , , , , , , ,

#DVpit

Great news for diversity authors! Beth Phelan from the Bent Agency is hosting a twitter pitch event for diverse manuscripts. The event will occur on April 19th on the twitter hashtag #DVpit from 8am-8pm EST. Beth gave a great interview on Brenda Drake’s blog explaining more about the event, including that she’s invited other agents and editors to participate.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst

Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction

Scrivener for Writers

Literary, , , , , , , , , , ,

win-showcase-scrivener_header

For years I’ve heard writers say they use Scrivener to help them write their manuscripts and I’ve recently decided to give it a whirl with my new manuscript. The software features a corkboard to organize, which even helps with writing a synopsis and moving index cards around. Other features include the Outliner, Scrivenings, Text Editing, Scriptwriting, and more. For a full description of all the features go here. And the best part about this software helping writers with their manuscript is it only costs $40 USD (available for windows and mac).

If you also use Scrivener, let others know in the comments how you feel about the software. Have a great day and happy writing.

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction

The 2016 Cleveland Writing Workshop

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Houston Writing Workshop

The 2016 Cleveland Writing Workshop will be held on June 4th, 2016 in Cleveland Ohio. According to the website this writing event is a wonderful opportunity to get intense instruction over the course of one day, pitch a literary agent (optional), get your questions answered, and more. Note that there are limited seats at the event (125 total). Some of the agents participating are:

  • Kimiko Nakamura with Dee Mura Literary
  • Mallory Brown with TriadaUS
  • Vicki Selvaggio with Jennifer De Chiara Literary
  • Moe Ferrara with BookEnds Literary
  • Kaylee Davis with Dee Mura Literary
  • Fred Tribuzzo with The Rudy Agency

Be sure to register early since seats are limited, especially if you want to pitch and agent in person.

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

HarperLegend Submissions

Literary, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

HarperLegend

You know I can’t resist informing readers about opportunities for open submissions to publishers, especially when one of the pubs is a big house. HarperCollins has an imprint called HarperLegend that allows authors to submit manuscripts, even if they don’t have an agent. According to the webpage, they want novels that communicate wisdom, insight, transformation and/or personal growth. These novels may have many different stripes and flavors including Christian, Eastern, or general spirituality, personal growth, wisdom literature, fables, historical fiction, fantasy fiction, even paranormal as long as it’s transformational. Some examples of books they give that’ll fit their taste are:

If you’ve got something along these lines, go here to submit.

As always, good luck.

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction

My Daughter is on NBC!

Film, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
BRIENNA VOICE
Brienna Voice

Photo by Lance Tilford of Limelight Studios.

 

For those who don’t know, my daughter is Brienna Voice. She barely started acting a few years back when, um, she got herself knocked up. So she took a hiatus before she really got started. But my grandson was worth it!

Kyston and Brienna

Lil’ Dude with his momma!

Now she’ll be on NBC‘s Chicago P.D. Wednesday, March 23 at 9pm CMT (10pm EST) and was hand selected by the director. Okay, okay, so it’s a non-speaking FEATURED roll, but I’m proud of her for getting back into the swing of things. She has a dream, just like I do with my writing. And we all know, if you don’t start, you can’t finish! Whenever possible, I support her in every way (so click her IMDB page again). She’s grown into such a beautiful young woman and I believe great things are coming her way.

Thanks for letting me dote on my bbgurrl.

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

FicFest Writing Contest

Contests, Literary, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FicFest

Today the guidelines and theme should be revealed for the FicFest contest on Tiffany Hoffman’s blog. This is another contest where the winners will get help revising their manuscripts for 8 weeks before the agent round.

Update: Go here for guidelines and theme!

Here is a schedule for the event:

March 27, 2016 @ 7:00 PM EST
Meet the Team Leads & Their Members!

April 3, 2016 @ 6:00 PM EST
Agent List Announced

April 17, 2016 @ 7:00 PM EST – 10:00 PM EST
Q & A with Team Leads & Host
(Twitter – Using #FicFest)

April 24, 2016 @ 12:00 AM EST – April 25, 2016 @ 11:59 PM EST
SUBMISSION

April 26, 2016 – May 3, 2016
Teams will chose their finalists/alternate

May 4, 2016 @ 10:00 AM EST
Finalists/Alternate Reveal

May 5, 2016 – June 30, 2016
Revisions

July 8, 2016 @ 12:00 AM EST – July 14, 2014 @ 11:59 PM EST
Agent Round

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction

Writer’s Digest Annual Conference

Literary, Writing Conferences & Getaways, , , , , , , ,

Writers Digest Conference

The Writer’s Digest Annual Conference is August 12-14, 2016 at New York Hilton Midtown. There are some great agents participating in the workshop and the PitchSlam event. For a complete list of agents, go here. They have an early bird special that ends on April 1, 2016. So if you’re planning to go, now is the time to register. I mean, who doesn’t want to join in the PitchSlam fun!

Happy learning and good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

Monthly Mumbles

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Creative Pencil

I’ve been told that I should occasionally write a post about myself. So I’ll start giving updates on what I’m doing or what I’ve done. Late last year, I got a promotion with my day job (working as an ASM for a fortune 500 country). This is great except I now work 50-60 hours per week, which really cuts into my writing time. So, on my days off I binge write blog posts to schedule (including this one). Then because I’m a glutton for punishment, I decided to finish my degree and signed up for classes. This semester I’m taking THREE! But I will finally be finished with my degree in May. Woot!

So, when do I have time to write? I MAKE TIME! (Even if just a little each day. Refer to an earlier post I wrote.) I recently started a middle grade novel with sort of a Hobbit-ish feel (which I’m really excited about). And for those who knew about my last novel THIS SCARY MANOR BLOWS being in the hands of agents, yes it is still with a few. Waiting can be so difficult. The best cure is to write something new and forget about the old. Speaking of new, I’m up to 106 book ideas that I’ve made notes on (or started in some way). Since I might not be able to write all of them in this lifetime, I’ll need to reincarnate myself. Just sayin’.

Now, I have to tell y’all about a great diversity book I read for my Lit284 class called THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY of a PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie. But I’ll warn you that sometimes the racist verbiage is a little tough to swallow. But the story is based on Sherman’s own life growing up on the reservation, so it wouldn’t be real if he kept the hard stuff out. Right? And have no fears about it being serious and deep, although there are some deep issues happening. This story is funny and inspiring about the underdog coming out on top. (Seriously, you’ll be asking yourself why you’re laughing when someone just died. So not cool, and yet there you’ll be.) The next book I’m currently reading is THE JOY LUCK CLUB by Amy Tan. (I know, hard to believe I haven’t read this story yet!)

That’s all for now. There be more from me later.

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.